The life and experiences of a community college philosophy teacher, department chair and former debate coach.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Chemo report -- #6

I have 6 more to go. Out of 20 total -- and 24 weeks in the process.

Excellent!!!!

All my lab tests are good, as usual.

I got a flu shot and an immunization for a really nasty pneumonia.. So the germ factory aspect of the Philosophy Factory won't be as bad this year.

They rearranged how the patients are placed in the chemo room. So far they let you choose where you want to sit -- BUT, that means that the nurses are often responsible for patients on both ends of a long, narrow room.

Now it works more like a restaurant -- nurses have a section, their patients sit in their section. I think this helped the process be much quicker this time than in previous weeks -- because my nurse could see that my bag needed to be changed and generally keep an eye on me more easily, because I'm sitting in her area... and she's down there more often.

I had one of my favorite nurses today -- M explained that this was a new system and that they just announced it on Tuesday -- no input, no explanations etc. The nurses are a little irritated about the way they did it --- to a lesser degree, but for the same reasons academics get irritated by decisions just announced by administrators.

As we discussed it, I mentioned that all their managers needed to do was to bring up the most pressing organizational problem in their work area -- namely the spread out patients... then the nurses might have actually suggested the change and, since people always take their own ideas for change more easily, the transition would have been clean and easy. As it is, the ones who resist change are resisting a little -- although, I think that when they've worked with the system a little longer they'll like it.

As for the patients -- there are some who insist on having THEIR chair. The nurses are smart and just backward engineer it so that the patient is assigned to the nurse who has THEIR chair in their section. Personally, I don't care -- so whomever they put me with will be fine :) -- besides I only have 6 more to go!!! I'll sit in the car if necessary (and, per Timna's suggestion -- they should let me do it on the road to wherever Mom and I decide to go :) ).

2 comments:

It would probably be pretty odd -- bland food, lots of ensure and ice water...

But, people are often in the clinic for a long time and eating during chemo becomes necessary, as chemo patients need to eat several small meals... Some people bring small coolers, others have friends and family go out for fast food. Seeing Wendy's and McDonalds bags in chemo isn't unusual. They also have lots of snacks for us -- usually cookies and crackers with that fake cheese or peanut butter.